Russian insurers refuse to insure Russian space program
Not a single Russian insurance company has bid to insure the upcoming launch of the Progress MS-10 spacecraft with a Soyuz-FG launch rocket. The spacecraft will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) in November.
This was reported by Interfax, citing documentation from the Russian state procurement website. The client was TsENKI, a subsidiary of Roscosmos, which announced its call for proposals on October 10.
The premium on the contract would be capped at 116.5 million rubles for a total insurance amount of 3.2 billion rubles, of which 3 billion would be for insuring the spaceship itself and 200 million for its cargo. The contract would be in effect until the end of 2019. Loss or destruction of the insured property, namely the spacecraft itself or its cargo, would constitute an insurance event.
“Not a single bid was made to participate in the procurement procedure, the open request has been recognized as a failure,” the protocol states.
The launch of the Progress MS-10 is planned for November 15-18 and will take place only a month after the catastrophe with the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft, which was unable to deliver its crew or cargo to the ISS. The Soyuz MS-10 was crewed by Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague, who were forced to make an emergency landing in Kazakhstan due to an emergency.
The risks in the launch of the Soyuz-FG rocket, the Soyuz MS-10 piloted transport spacecraft, and its docking at the ISS were insured by the Russian insurance company Soglasie for 4.65 billion rubles. The company notes that if the incident is recognized as an insurance event, it will become one of the largest payouts in the history of space risk insurance.